EXCLUSIVE: New Music from a Grown-Up Now, Now

Minneapolis band, formerly Now, Now Every Children, return with new EP. Download "Roommates."

Last year, up-and-coming Minneapolis band Now, Now Every Children caught our attention as a standout act at New Jersey’s Bamboozle festival, their fuzzy, synth-driven rock offering a welcome alternative to that event’s lineup of guyliner-ed fare. The trio is back with a new EP, Neighbors (out Dec. 7) — and a new name: Now, Now. Download one of their new songs, “Roommates,” below, and also hear an acoustic version of another new song, “Giants.”

Why the name change? “It originally came from an inside joke that just happened to turn into our band name, so it was never something we took very seriously,” singer-keyboardist-guitarist Cacie Dalager tells SPIN. “We felt like we needed to disconnect ourselves from any childish image we had. It was a way of starting over and simplifying things for us.”

Like the new moniker, the band’s new tunes sound more refined, simpler, and more confident. “Roommates” opens with a sparse arrangement, then builds deliberately and dramatically, with keyboard twinkles and a hint of sleigh bells unfolding into a brash but controlled crescendo that belies the demure vibe of the song’s chorus: “I am the shy one,” sings Dalager. “I don’t have to say very much to get what I want.”

Dalager is acutely aware of the band’s songwriting development. “We didn’t really know what we were doing when we wrote and recorded [their 2008 debut] Cars,” she says. “We are less timid now and not afraid to be making the kind of music that we want.”

In addition to the EP release, Now, Now will play at next month’s Popsickle Fest in Minneapolis, a new gathering helmed by fellow Twin Cities act Motion City Soundtrack and featuring performances Minus the Bear, Foxy Shazam, and loads more. Click here for details.